The low cost of data storage hardware has led to the collection of large volumes of data. Merchants, for example, generate and collect large volumes of data during the course of their business. To compete effectively, it is necessary for a merchant to be able to identify and use information hidden in the collected data. Where the merchant operates retail premises, this data could include operational parameters such as the length of customer queues, the average waiting time in a queue, the average service time and so forth. The data could also include information on the areas in which customers prefer to browse within a retail premises. The task of identifying this hidden information has proved very difficult for merchants.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,328 to Boyette describes a system which performs image processing of camera images. The system is designed for use in businesses which include queues or servers and has a camera which captures successive images of an area to be monitored. A combination of blob analysis and motion analysis is used to determine if a server is on duty and present at the server's station, and if the server is serving a customer. Using blob analysis techniques, the system is able to maintain a count of the number of people waiting in the queue to be served. The data is used to generate displays directing waiting customers to the next available server and to inform newly arriving customers of their expected waiting time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,055 to Huang et al/NCR Corporation describes a system for detecting, collecting information about, and analysing a queue. A sequence of video images from a video camera are converted into digital video images and pixel processing and edge detection are performed, regions separated by less than a defined pixel distance are grouped into single objects, and the number of objects are counted to determine the number of persons in an area, for example a queue. The system can collect data on the number of people in the queue, the average service time for each person in the queue, and other types of information regarding the queue.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,616 to Hartmeier/Intel Corporation describes a system which collects data on call activity, for example the number of calls waiting in a queue, the time duration of the oldest call still in the queue, and a site identifier. The system displays these statistics to a user in a display which uses features such as colour to indicate the current state of calls waiting to be served and the longest call waiting.
The systems described above are largely focused on the capture and storage of data representing human activity. None of these systems provide a means of display of the captured and stored data in a form which is intuitive and easy to interpret.